1)The Different Theories All Seem to Have Some Kernel of Truth

Comparison of Ethical Theories

1)The Different Theories All Seem to Have Some Kernel of Truth

Divine Command

Religions enjoin us to behave well and, whatever their failings, do provide ethical models.

Cultural Relativism

Clearly, we are deeply influenced by our culture, and cultures/societies try to preserve themselves and look out for their members.

Emotivism

There is no question that much of our behavior is influenced by our emotions and that, by and large, we have social feelings.

Hedonism

The pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain are major factors in life, and there are higher and lower pleasures.

Egoism

There is no question that people look out for Number 1 much, if not most of the time, and most ethical theories grant that, at least up to a point, this is okay. How could we survive without self-love?

Deontology

A sense of justice and injustice, of doing your duty, is ubiquitous among human beings, however much they may fail to live up to ethical principles.

Utilitarianism

There is no question that we are constantly calculating what to do in terms of “pleasures and pains,” i.e. benefits and harms, and much of the time we attempt to quantify this behavior.

Virtue Ethics

We certainly are creatures with both good and bad habits, which pervade our consciousness and our behavior.

2) Comparing Crude and Sophisticated Versions of Ethical Theories

Ethics based on religion: the divine command theory

CRUDE: standard criticisms: religious commands may conflict, is goodness independent of God, sometimes religions command what seems to be evil…

SOPHISTICATED: God and good may be identified, religion is the source of ethics for many people; rational theology attempts to resolve difficulties and contradictions.

Ethics based on society or culture

CRUDE: cultural commands often radically conflict with each other; what cultures command may be obviously evil.

SOPHISTICATED: clearly, we are strongly influenced by our culture; we should be sensitive to cultural differences and not be ethnocentric; besides, there are cultural universals.

Emotivism

CRUDE: ethical terms reduce to mere expressions of emotion or desire: “I like it,” “I don’t like it.” This denies rationality to ethics.

SOPHISTICATED: Hume and Mill: ethics is based on fellow-feeling or “sympathy” (Hume’s term).

Egoism (divided into psychological and ethical egoism)

CRUDE: dog-eat-dog selfish egoism.

SOPHISTICATED: Ayn Rand’s Objectivism: it’s in our rational self-interest to cooperate with others. Aristotle: you can’t respect and love others if you don’t love and respect yourself. Rand and Aristotle: who would want to live without friends?

Hedonism

CRUDE: the pursuit of pleasures is the end of life, usually understood physically

SOPHISTICATED: Epicureanism (“refined pleasures”), the “higher pleasures” of Mill, the eudaimonism of Aristotle.

Deontology (ethics based on duty)

CRUDE: unsophisticated interpretations of Kant, combined with ignorance of Cicero

SOPHISTICATED: distinguishing the ideal realm (Kant’s Kingdom of Ends) from the phenomenal world in which we live; recognizing a hierarchy of duties.

Social contract theory

LESS SOPHISTICATED: belief in a literal social contract

MORE SOPHISTICATED: the contract can be implied in various ways

Utilitarianism

CRUDE: all pleasures are created equal and straightforward quantitative judgments can be made among them

SOPHISTICATED: we constantly distinguish between higher and lower pleasures.The higher pleasures include a love of ethical behavior, virtue, and justice.

“Virtue” ethics

CRUDE: ethics identified with an incomplete list of virtues: incomplete or superficial reading of Aristotle

SOPHISTICATED: justice is the highest virtue, encompassing the others; ethical virtue is closely allied with intellectual virtue; ethical virtue seen in relationship to duty.